CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

A SERMON

PREACHED AT THE

Consetwtioit of St. iojra's (%pel, JSokrt College;

OCTOBER 29, 1863.

REV. MORGAN DIX, D. D.,
RECTOR OF TRINITY CHDRCH, NEW YORK.

WITH A PRELIMINARY STATEMENT OP THE DESIGN OF THE CHAPLAINCY,

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

NEW YORK:
EDWARD O. JENKINS, PRINTER,

!

20 NORTH WILLIAM STREET. <

1863. 1
7?Q»---  .......-¦.-. - -*&^

A SEKMOJN

PREACHED AT THE

Consecration of St. |o|n s (%nel, f)okrt College,

OCTOBER 29, 1863.

REV. MORGAN DIX, D. D.,
RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK.

WITH A PRELIMINARY STATEMENT OP THE DESIGN OF THE CHAPLAINCY,

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF TIIE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

NEW YORK:
EDWARD O. JENKINS, PRINTER,
20 NORTH "WILLIAM STREET.
1863.

PEEFATOEY NOTE.

The subject of extinguishing the debt of the College, and
enlarging its endowment, in order to increase the corps of
professors, engaged the attention of the Board of Trustees at
its annual meeting in June, 1858, and a committee was ap
pointed to devise measures for the attainment of these objects.
Owing, however, to the state of the country, and to other
temporary hinderances, nothing had been accomplished before
the meeting of the Board at the time of the Medical Com
mencement in January, 1860. A new committee was then
appointed, which promptly took the matter in hand, and pro
ceeded to arrange its plans. The first subscription came from
a member of the committee, Mr. William B. Douglas, of
Geneva, who offered to aid the general effort by erecting, at
his own cost, a suitable Chapel for the use of the College.
Another member of the committee, Mr. John H. Swift, of
New York, subscribed an endowment for a Chaplaincy. The
views of the committee in regard to the place which the reli
gious element should occupy in a liberal education, are very
clearly set forth in a Statement which they published in March,
1860, an extract from whicli is given below. The objects
aimed at by the gentlemen to whom the College is indebted
for so great an increase of its means of religious training and
power of sacred impression, are more particularly designated
in the Statutes for the government of the Chaplaincy, framed
by them and accepted by the Board of Trustees. The extract
from these statutes which is given below will sufficiently in
dicate these objects.
The Chaplaincy went into operation in the autumn of 1862,

4 PREFATORY NOTE.
with the Eev. Henry A. Neely, lately the Rector of Christ
Church, Eochester, as its first incumbent. The new Chapel
has been in use only since the beginning of the present acad
emic year (Sept. 10th, 1863). It is still too soon to determine,
experimentally, the full value of the Chapel-service as now
conducted, or to place a just estimate on the influence of the
Chaplaincy. But the whole tendency of the experiment is to
powerfully second and confirm the subjoined estimate of their
value. A very marked and noticeable harmony runs through
the views of the committee, of the founders of the Chapel and
Chaplaincy, and of the preacher at its consecration. It now
remains for those who are charged with the realization of
these views to cause this harmony to reappear and prolong
itself in the practical working of a system so auspiciously
begun. J.
Hobabt College, Nov. 20, 1863.

EXTRACTS. 5.
{Extract from the Statement dated March, I860.]
THE CHAPEL AND THE CHAPEL SERVICE.
As a Church-College, the Chapel-Service lies at the heart of our
whole system. It is here that the religious element must manifest
its full power over the youth whose education has been entrusted to
our care. The sacred truths of Christianity are indeed taught in
every part of our course of study ; more especially in the depart
ments of Ethics and of the Evidences of Christianity is thorough
and systematic instruction given on all the leading doctrines, as well
as the positive grounds of our holy religion. The faith once delivered
to the Saints is thus strongly impressed on the minds of the students
and they are at the same time furnished with decisive answers to the
various objections of modern infidelity. But that which gives effi
ciency to the whole system is the daily service of the Chapel. This
supplies the quickening, moulding element, which makes all the rest
fruitful. Here, what has been learned as doctrine is reduced to pra<>
tice in the daily solemn worship of Almighty God. In confession of
sin there is a constant recognition of our frail and fallen state ; while
pardon and reconciliation are sought and proclaimed to the contrite
heart through the atoning blood of Christ. Praise lifts the soul to
God, in chant, and psalm, and hymn ; and prayer fixes it in com
munion with Him who is the fountain of light and life. The great
leading facts of redemption arebrought out to view, and are again
and again impressed on the youthful mind by the ever-recurring and
glorious circle of the Christian Year.
The illuminating and sanctifying power of God's Holy Word, the
teachings of his appointed ministers, in sermons and lectures espe
cially designed for students, and fitted to instruct, to warn, to arouse,
and to win them to Christ and to the obedience of his Gospel — -this
whole service — this Common Prayer, repeated with general solemnity
and earnestness, week-day and Sunday, will take hold of the inner
life, and find its issue in pure and gentle influences, sweetly moulding
tlje daily course of action, and gradually passing into the confirmed
habits of a ripe Christian character. We do not say that all this
will be always accomplished, or that it will be even in the majority
of instances. But we are holding forth our ideal of what we ought
to work towards — of what ought to be the place and influence of the

6' EXTRACTS.
religious element in a Church-College, and of what, by God's bless
ing, we can in a good degree attain to. Effects will be wrought by
this system of religious training which will, be felt through life.
Very often, even when the student appears thoughtless and careless
during much, perhaps the whole, of his stay in College, seeds of truth
and love will, nevertheless, have been sown, which will germinate and
bear fruit in more thoughtful years.
The Chapel-Service forms a strong bond of union, and is a most'
important means of cultivating brotherly affection throughout the'
academic body. The Common Prayer is almost the only common
ground in College life. In lectures, recitation, and recreation, all' are
dispersed in classes and companies. But here in the Chapel both
officers and students come together twice each day ; they kneel
together as the children of the same Heavenly Father ; they implore
the forgiveness of the same sins, and ask for the supply of the same
wants ; they give expression to a common faith and a common hope ;
with one voice and heart they invoke the divine blessing alike on
instructors and pupils, and on the institution which is dear to both.
Let us make the Chapel and the Chapel-Service what they ought to
be, and this will be the one sacred spot to which the thoughtful stu
dent will look back with the tenderest associations in after years.
As an element of order too, pervading with a silent and persua
sive influence the whole College, it is difficult to over-estimate the
value of a well arranged Liturgical daily service, performed with
all the impressiveness and solemnity of which it is susceptible. It
tends constantly to imbue the minds of the students with that quiet'
and orderly spirit which is so beautiful a characteristic of the
Church. The tone and spirit of the service pass over into the life,
and become therein a regulative force which reduces all to order and
peace. We are anxious, therefore, so to arrange and order the Chapel-
Service as to give to it the utmost solemnity, earnestness, and reality.
And to further the attainment of this end, we propose to erect a new
Chapel, such, for durability, architectural beauty, and fitness, as may
serve for this sacred use in all time to come, and such as will aid us
with all the impressiveness of effect which can be derived from a
material temple skillfully planned, beautifully wrought, and duly
consecrated to the service of Almighty God. And we are happy in

EXTRACTS.

being able to announce for the encouragement of those who will feel
an interest in this movement, that a member of the Board of Trus
tees has offered as his contribution towards it, to build for the Col
lege such a Chapel as we have described, at his sole cost.

THE CHAPLAIN.
But this offer to build a Chapel is made on the express condition
that a foundation for a Chaplaincy, equal in amount to a Professor
ship shall be secured. On this foundation a Chaplain is to be
placed, who, ¦in connection with such duties of instruction as will
harmonize with his sacred office, shall devote himself exclusively to
the religious training and culture of the undergraduates. He will
officiate in the daily service of the Chapel. He will be the College
Preacher. And the College will form a congregation or parish of
which he will be the Pastor. He will, of course, maintain order in
his classes so far as he shall be an officer of instruction, but other
wise he will have nothing to do with the discipline of the institution.
He will thus be known to the students only as their Pastor and
Teacher in things pertaining to God. There will be everything in
his position to invite affection and confidence, and to draw into inti
mate relations. The influence of such an officer, standing in such
relation to the students, and possessed of the requisite character and
abilities for his sacred office, must be great and salutary. For our
own part we regard this Chaplaincy as of the very first importance
to the complete development of the College as a seat of Christian
learning. And it gives us sincere pleasure to be able to state that
another member of the Board of Trustees has said, that he will try
to do his part towards this effort in behalf of the College, by endow
ing the Chaplaincy. He is actuated in this by a high sense of the
value of this particular department, when thus put in charge of an
officer specially and exclusively devoted to its sacred duties, in giv
ing energy to the working of the religious element throughout the
whole academic system.

EXTRACTS.

[Extract from the Statutes governing the Chaplaincy,}
" The original subscribers to en dow a Chaplaincy and to build a
Chapel were moved thereto from having seen the peculiar dangers
and temptations that attend young men on leaving their homes. and
passing from under the watchful eyes of parents, or guardians and
pastors, to enter upon life within the walls of a College ; and from
having felt the need of more vigilant and loving pastoral care than
is secured to students in our colleges, under the common systems that
prevail. These considerations led them to attempt to secure to the
members of Hobart College, for all future time, the presence and
the influence of a Pastor, to be charged with the care of their souls,
and, so far as may be, to supply, for the time being, the places of
parents, or guardians and pastors, from whom they are separated ;
who, being disconnected with the general enforcement of discipline,
and from any considerable amount of mere academic instruction,
should be free to train, guide, and influence the students in the
principles of the Christian faith, and the practice of the Christian
life, by systematic pulpit and class instruction, specially adapted to
their minds, by a well ordered and reverent daily worship, accord
ing to the provisions of the Church in her Holy Liturgy, by assidu
ously cultivating with the members of the College those kindly rela
tions known to the loving Pastor, whereby he may often be enabled
to win their affections, gain their confidence, and restrain many irreg
ularities of living incident to college life, and so not only benefit
them, but the institution and all connected with it."
The following notice of the consecration of the Chapel is taken
from the Church Journal of Nov. 4, 1863, with slight correction :
Messrs. Editors : — The Bishop of the Diocese, the Rt. Rev. Dr.
DeLancey, consecrated St. John's Chapel, Hobart College, to the ser
vice and glory of Almighty God, on the 29th ult. The procession, con
sisting of twenty-three clergymen, in surplices, with the Bishop at its
head, was formed at the college library. On reaching the porch of the
new edifice it was received by the Board of Trustees. The twenty-
fourth psalm was recited responsively by- the Bishop and clergy as they
moved up the alley. The Request to consecrate was placed in the
Bishop's hands by Mr. D. S. Hall, the senior trustee present, and
was read by the Rev. Henry A. Neely, Chaplain. The Sentence of

EXTRACTS. 9
Consecration was read by the Rev. Dr. Jackson^ President of the
College. The Consecration service ended, Morning Prayer was be
gun by the Rev. Dr. Van Rensselaer, President of De Veaux Col
lege. The proper psalms were chanted antiphonally by the choir ^
the first lesson was read by the Rev. L. Ward Smith, of the Diocese
of Pennsylvania ; the second by the Rev. J. M. Clarke, of Syracuse ;
the Creed { Nicene) and Collects by the Rev. R. N. Parke, of Water
loo. The Ante-Communion was read by the Bishop, the Rev.
Prof. Wilson, D. D., reading the Epistle, and the Rev. Prof. Met
calf, D. D., the Gospel. The sermon, from Psalm xxxvh 9 — In
Thy light shall we see light — was preached by the Rev. Morgan Dix,
D. D., Rector of Trinity Church, New York. The sentences in the
Offertory and the prayer for the Church Militant were read by the
Rev. Dr. Payne, of the Diocese of New York. The Bishop was
assisted in the Holy Communion by the Rev. Dr. Jackson and the
Rev. H. A. Neely. The Rev. Dr. Schuyler, of Rochester, read the
Post-Communion, the Bishop pronouncing the Benediction.
The sermon, which we learn is to be published, was a noble effort
of sacred oratory. The preacher struck the very key-note of those
designs which seemed on that day to be crowned with success, in the
completed Chapel and the present Chaplain. His fervid delivery
showed how deeply he sympathized with the effort which is here being
made to secure the most perfect union between religion and learning.
Many earnest prayers, beside his own, ascended on that day for the
entire success of the generous experiment. The Chaplaincy,, which
is an essential part of this scheme, was endowed by a wise and
large-hearted layman of New York, a Vestryman of Trinity Church.
The music on this occasion was rendered, as at the ordinary ser
vices of the College Chapel, by a double choir, chosen from the stu
dents. It was simple in its character, but appropriate and inspiring.
The chants used were, for the Venile, Robinson in E6 ; Psalms,
Arnold in Bb, Nares in A, and Felton in F; Jubilate, Turner in A.
The Te Deum was Walter's in C, and the Sanctus a Gregorian from
Walter's Manual. For the accompaniment, it is enough to say that
Mr. W. H. Walter presided at the organ, and to him the members
of the choir have expressed themselves as much indebted, both for
valuable hints at rehearsal, and for skillful assistance in the service.
A word ought here to be said concerning the new organ of St. John's

10 EXTRACTS.
Chapel. It is an instrument of twelve stops, and two octaves of
pedals, with reversed and extended action, built by Mr. J. G. Mark-
love, of Utica, and is a masterpiece both in tone and workmanship.
The cost of the instrument was $1,055, which sum was cheerfully
contributed by churchmen of Buffalo, Syracuse, Auburn, and Geneva,
and by the officers and students of the College.
The Chapel, which is built of Waterloo limestone, *is in the
Second Pointed style. It is about 26x79, internal measurement,
with a massive stone porch on the south side. There is also an am
ple robing-room in connection with the chancel, at the east end of the
building. The side walls are appropriately buttressed ; from the
top of the walls rises a steep and ornamented roof of red, green, and
purple slates, the whole surmounted with a ridge crest of beautiful
design. The interior arrangements are very complete and conveni
ent. The roof is open and richly moulded. The seats are arranged
parallel with the side walls, and rise from the aisle. They, will
accommodate 250 students. All the furniture is of black walnut of
appropriate design. The chapel is singularly effective in the moral
impression which it is fitted to produce on all who enter it. The
architects, Messrs. Upjohn & Son, are entitled to high praise for so
beautiful a design. They have realized what Bishop Wilberforce, in
his sermon at the consecration of the new chapel of Exeter College,
Oxford, requires as the true ideal of such a holy temple : " It must
be certain that it becomes us to make the College Chapel such in all
its outward arrangements as will fit it to stamp its own impression
on every mind. Its first a pect should speak its separation from the
hall or the lecture room. It is provided for those in whom the force
of association is even unusually strong ; and it should seek to seize,
through that power, on the first thoughts of every one who enters it,
and secure them for God."
The stained glass, with which the windows throughout are glazed,
was made by Henry Sharp, of New York, and reflects great credit
on his taste and skill. The chancel window in particular, is, for its
size, one of the finest in the country. The figure of St. John in the
central light is a masterpiece. It is not the least interesting circum
stance ccnnected with the Chapel that it is the munificent gift of a
single friend of the College.
The Font, a singularly beautiful piece of carving in Caen-stone, is

EXTRACTS. 11
the gift of another friend. The Communion Service, of richly chased
silver, by Cooper, of New York, is another gift. Still other gifts
are. the books for the altar, and the alms basins carved of black
walnut. The eagle lectern, finely carved from black walnut, is a
striking object. It serves both to read the Holy Scriptures and to
preach from.

Stnttan

AT THE CONSECRATION OF ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL, HOBART COLLEGE, GENEVA,
OCTOBER 29ra, 1863, BT THE EEV. MORGAN DIX, D. D., •
EECTOE OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK.

We are assembled, beloved brethren in the Lord, to keep
a feast of dedication. We are here to set apart from all
unhallowed, worldly, and common uses, forever, a temple of
God ; to light another lamp before the shrine of heavenly
intercession ; to consecrate a material house, that it be hence
forth a place for the Lord to dwell in by His Holy Spirit.
Hither hath the Bishop summoned us to assist at such an
office ; and so, in answer to his call, are we here.
But, beloved brethren, there are circumstances in this
case which confer upon it a special and peculiar interest.
This is the Chapel of a College. It is the place where prayer
shall be made by those who are engaged in giving and
receiving instruction in the arts and learning of the day. The
Institution here existing is not altogether a secular one. It
is, in some respects, above the age, and beyond it. For its
founders held fast certain principles which the age does not
receive ; and in its very constitution there lives an element
foreign to the spirit of these times. It is, avowedly, a Chris
tian College. Nay more; it is a College of the Episcopal
Church. They who fill its chairs must be believers ; and
they who are instructed within its walls are taught, not
.merely after the rudiments of the world, but with reference
to the mind of Christ. There is a method here, over and
above the way and method of the world. A recognition of
Almighty God ; of the doctrines of redemption and grace ;
of the positive institutions of Christianity ; a profession of the

14 CONSECRATION SERMON.
perpetual Creeds, a reverence for the authority of the Church
of God. It may be said of this University, that her founda
tions are upon the holy hills. That- her corner-stone is laid
upon the old Catholic basis. It may be inferred that, in
every department, these profound relationships are, and will
evermore be, borne in mind and held in view. Thus, if his
tory be taught here, it will be taught as the manifestation of
the personal Qod, acting through the course and events of
time. If Philosophy be taught, it will be as under correction
from the divinely attested dogmas of Theology. If science be
pursued, it will be in such a way as that materialistic tenden
cies shall be forestalled. If languages be. studied, they will
be recognized as the gift of God, and not the invention of
men. Thus, in all things, this is, and is. to be while time
shall last and while its walls shall stand, a Christian College,
a College of the Church of our love. But these rare features
must have their visible expression. These root-ideas must be
placed, in symbol, before the eyes of men. And that is done
to-day. The sign is given at last. It is given in the dedica
tion of this Chapel ; in these sacred solemnities. Here is the
place of the presence of God. Here is the shrine of the Spirit
of Truth. Here is the ark in the midst of the camp. Here,
in the circumference of these scholastic fields, is the candle
stick ; and hence the light is poured on all around. The sun
is at last in the midst of your firmament. The centre of all
your system is marked and shown in outward, visible sign.
This chapel is the key to all ; the explanation of all. Last in
time, but in importance first. Only now finished. But such,
that, until it was finished, nothing was finished, nothing
was complete, nothing could have been complete.
Holy, therefore, is this, our work. And blessed are the
hands that have reared this structure. And happy beyond
all of us to-day is he whose heart God did move to make this
offering and to build this house. And blessed in their own
way are all who minister, this hour, before the Lord in the
solemn acts and offices of consecration. AVith humble rever-

CONSECRATION SERMON. 15
ence and gratitude do we bear our part, as they who, in
ancient times, brought forth the headstone of the temple with
shoutings, crying grace, grace unto it. (Zech. iv. 7.) Yea, breth
ren, your Bishop is proclaiming, in this place, and in the
execution of his office, Grace, Mercy, and Peace from God our
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. It is his to crown
the work that went before. And now, if God's Word be true,
the consecrating hands shall draw down largeness of bene
diction, and pour abroad, on all around, great influences and
powers for good.
My brethren, upon being invited to preach to you on this
interesting occasion, it was a question much debated in my
thoughts upon what topic to address you. But the quiet
expectation of the scenes in the midst of which I find myself
at present did, long ere this, induce to the selection of a sub
ject. In pleased forecasting of this day; in the attempt to
picture to himself a place, a scene, to which the passing hours
were preparing for him an access, the preacher found himself
led away towards wider prospects. All that is now before
his eyes was foreseen. Your beautiful town, by its placid
lake. Your college buildings, overshadowed by the ancient
trees. The seat of learning, and the cradle of letters in this
region. The good Bishop, so much beloved ; the brotherly
clergy, the friendly people, assembling themselves together.
In the midst, this fair Chapel, the reverend sanctuary, and
the place where prayer is wont to be made ; the liturgy, the
voices of praise and joy, the offices of our religion, the unison
of the everlasting Creeds, the oblation at the altar. But it
were not strange, if, in the endeavor to call up a scene like
this before the time, a man should find his thoughts leading
him away beyond the limits set at first. And thus it chanced
with me. For, in thinking over these things, the particulars
would seem to have enlarged themselves and multiplied.
There came a widening and broadening on every side, until
the narrower scene, on which the mental eye was fixed, had
expanded into a suggestive vision of the world at large ; and

16 CONSECRATION SERMON.
the chapel, even while the mind was trying to conjecture its
shape, and size, and look, seemed to grow and grow, until in
its place there arose, right stately in her grand proportions,
the Church Catholic of the ages. So that involuntarily a
parallel had been made. In your lands and fertile acres I
saw an image of the wide world and all that is therein.
Yonder academic halls became a representment of that do
main, in which the intellect of man is ever busy in its own
marvellous way. And the Chapel was a symbol of the
mountain of the House of the Lord, standing in the midst,
God's gift in the latter days to men. Thus the particulars
had changed to universals; and what is here presented'
seemed to be but in miniature, a reduction of far wider
things ; a reflection of the grander ways of God's Providence
in its relations to the whole race and family of man.
And then, it was natural to think, that such as is the
Chapel to your college, such is the Church to the Intellectual
World : that such as these halls would be without the light
of the Divine mind, such would be the- intellectual world
without revelation. And thus a subject came looming up
before the thoughts. A subject too large to be handled in
one sermon. A subject on which I shall say but a few
words, and make a few suggestions, assured that they will be
neither out of place on such an occasion as this, nor out of
harmony with the bent of your thoughts to-day.
My brethren, we hold these propositions to be most true :
that the human mind needs light for the right use and play
of its energies ; that this light must come, not from within,
but from without ; not from itself, but from God ; and that
the Church is the reservoir and dispenser thereof. It is not
proposed to speak at length in proof of these positions; but
since the very cause which has brought us hither argues your
deep conviction of their truth, it shall be my office to re-affirm
them, as though I spoke for you, to enunciate them as axioms,
to state them frankly, to illustrate and enforce them as, in
substance, the lesson of the day.

CONSECRATION SERMON. 17
And, first, the mind has need of an atmosphere of light,
for the right use and exercise of its powers. It must have a
medium of vision, or ever it can see. And that medium, that
atmosphere, is not the same as the mind which sees through
it, nor can the mind supply such a medium unto itself. Con
sider the bodily eye. That organ is in itself complete : all
things considered, it is perhaps the most wonderful thing in
the human frame. But, yet, it is useless until it have light.
Made for the light, it is, without light, as though it were not.
The light is not from the eye, nor is it a part of the eye, nor
is it, in any wise, a power or a product of the organ which
sees. But it is an outer medium, formed by the Almighty
Creator, and poured around, to the end that the eye may be
used. The supply of light is a condition to the availability
of the eye. We think precisely thus of the intellect. That it
is, in itself, an admirable work of God. But, yet, that it is
helpless, and useless, and worthless, to any practical result,
until it have a medium for the exercise of its powers. So
that He who gave to man the mind and intellect, must also
provide the atmosphere wherein to employ it; and that
unless He do this there can be no true intellectual vision ; and
that, if He had not done this for us, we should have been in
darkness even until now.
We, therefore, hold as entirely distinct the intellect, re
garded as a potential phenomenon, and that same intellect
in operation in the midst of its proper light. The instrument
may be used, even though there be no light, or a false light,
or a dim and partial light, or a light of one's own kindling.
But all such use is vain. Just as, in the darkness, the eye
ball may turn in its socket, and the lids may close and open,
and the optic nerve may scintillate with imaginary impres
sions, and the pupil may dilate or contract with involuntary
motion and tentative effort. But in each case the effort
proves abortive, and the power is thrown away. What we
mean to say is this : that although the reason may act, and
act with vigor, and with mighty attempts, and with prolonged

18 CONSECRATION SERMON.
and protracted force, yet all shall be to no purpose, except it
act, and work, and strive, in that medium for which it was
created. That medium is the light of God. And, therefore,
is that light in some measure shed abroad wherever the
spirit of man is found alive, with its work before it, and with
the hour of activity prescribed.
The mind must have light, and that light must reach it,
and be shed upon it, from without. We infer this, first, from
analogy. As to our physical existence, we are dependent
beings. There is about us no sign of self-sufficiency. In
every direction are we restrained by limits ; and all our life,
and all our existence, in every particular, is contingent, vari
able, and finite. The fact will not be disputed, as touching
our material existence : why then should any doubt that the
same thing holds good with reference to our intellectual and
spiritual state? May we not reason from the seen to the
unseen ? From what we know of the body, may we not infer
of the soul ? If, as to the whole order of this bodily life, we
are dependent creatures ; if we bear upon our frames the
stamp of inadequacy ; if we be so constituted as to need the
perpetual stay of the hand and arm of the Most High : then
might it be inferred, until the contrary could be shown, that
this same weakness, inadequacy, dependence must be found
in respect to the operations of the mind and spirit. But this
inference does not remain an inference. If there can be, in a
moral argument, , the force of a demonstration, if there be
compelling weight in universal experience, that inference must
ascend to a certainty. Go and study the history of the hu
man mind. There have been times when, uncertain and
doubtful, through the loss of light, it has bent itself to the
earnest effort to come, in the exercise of its own powers alone,
at the knowledge of the truth. Read the works of those
philosophers, as well of ancient as of modern time, who have
taken in hand to learn, by reasoning alone, the nature of God,
the nature of man, the duties and destiny of our race, the
manner and results of human action. Precious are those

CONSECRATION SERMON. 19
volume*; nay, beyond price, since they prove the natural
helplessness of the mind. For nothing could be more con
spicuous than the failure of all those investigations, and
nothing more deplorable than the results which have ensued.
The mind, unaided, is powerless before the problem of eternal
truth. The history of intellectual philosophy in the past;
the history of the variations of popular religionism in the
present, tell one and the same story. The old philosophers,
having lost the primitive tradition, knew not God. They
thought to find Him by their own mental processes, by the
way of argument and investigation. But the conclusions
were as many and as diverse as the brains which drew them,
and the results were utter skepticism in thought, and utter
abandonment in morals. The moderns, having despised and
rejected the truth as it was presented to them by the Holy
Spirit through the Creeds of the Church, went about to con
vince themselves, by their own subjective processes, what it
might be reasonable to accept and believe : and the end has
been reached in a looseness and vagueness of thought disas
trous to the proper use of the intellect ; in the adoption of
changeful opinions in place of a positive religion ; in a wav
ering between the extremes of Materialism on the one hand
and Spiritualism on the other, until that point has been
reached at which the scene, intellectually and theologically,
is one of vast and far-spread lawlessness, disorder, and con
fusion. Building, then, upon facts in the present and in the past,
we reassert, without fear, our propositions : that the intellect
is but an organ of vision ; that it is dependent on external
conditions for its value ; that without light it is useless ; and
that it cannot furnish for itself the light which it requires.
These are truths which men have not received. Their great
mistake has been to confound the instrument with the condi
tions necessary to its exercise. They have thought of the
mind as though it were complete, alone, for all its purposes ;
they have looked on it as a principal instead of an accessory ;

20 CONSECRATION SERMON.
they have made a Deity of that which is but a created thing.
.They have forgotten the words, " In thy light shall we see
light." They have forgotten, at once, those words, and Him
to whom they refer. In idolizing a part, a function of this
nature of ours, they have forgotten the God of that nature ;
and in elevating a thing created, they have removed the
Creator far away. And thus the mind has drifted slowly
towards a general chaos and confusion, a state which it had
reached in the days when the Gospel was first given to the
world ; a state to which, in our time, it would unquestionably
have relapsed ere now but for the presence and influence of
the Catholic Church, the pillar and ground of the truth, the
witness and keeper of the faith.
For do not think, dear brethren, that this great subject is
left in a loose and unpractical shape. On the contrary, it is
presented with a rigid exactness which no art could improve.
The light whicli the human mind requires, and without which
it is and must be blind forever — that light is shed abroad
from our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the agency of His Holy
Spirit. He is the light, and the man that followeth Him
shall not walk in darkness ; qui sequitur Me non ambulat in
tenebris. He is the Light of the World, in every sense in
which that expression can be taken, not after the manner of
a poetical thought, nor as though we dealt in figures of
rhetoric ; but the Lord is truly, and practically, and positively
the Light of Light to men. So that out of Him there can be
no true knowledge, nor device, nor learning, nor wisdom.
That is the true light which lighteth every man that cometh
into this world. And then, lest we might wander, uncertain
where to find Him, behold, His Church is set in the midst of
the earth. Lest we should grope in the darkness, not know
ing where to find that fount of light at which our pale torches
may be kindled, lo, the city set on a hill ! It. is the function
¦ of the Church of Christ to show us perpetually of her Master.
In her are we brought to communion with Him. In her
sacramental institutions, all divine of origin, are we made the

CONSECRATION SERMON. 21
members of Christ, enlightened by his neighborhood and
presence, endued with His Holy Spirit, enriched with His
heavenly grace. Christ is realized to us in His Church. Out
of her He might have been to us no better than an abstrac
tion and a name. To whom shall we go for the right know
ledge of him, to whom, O Mother of Saints, O School of the
Wise, but to thee ? We know, my brethren, that it is only
the inflexible Creeds which, under Divine Providence, pre
serve in this world a fixed and positive conception of the God
head, and of Christ, and of the supernatural order on which
we depend. Ye know how loose and vague is modern reli
gious thought, how crude are modern religious ideas, how
wide are the variations of belief, how men glory in the boast
of freedom to believe what they choose. Place yourselves
face to face with the state of the world, and say what would
become of the Faith as we have received it if the Creeds were
taken away ? And where would the Creeds be if the Church
had gone down? Brethren, it is an assertion made under the
strongest conviction of its truth, that nothing saves the Chris
tian Faith to-day but the calm, clear, and everlasting repeti
tion of the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds by believing and
earnest men ; and that, if they were no more heard among us,
a very short time would see the religious thought of the
country dissolve and deliquesce into a mere slush of inane
and useless opinions.
The points of this brief statement, which it was desired to
make, are as follows :
1st. That the intellect of man needs light for the due dis
charge and exercise of its functions.
2nd. That this light must come to it from without, and
not in any wise from within.
3d. That this light is, personally and practically, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And
4th. That He is shown to us, in that character, in the doc
trinal and theological system of His Church.
And, having laid down these principles, let my remarks

22 CONSECRATION SERMON.
be drawn towards their conclusion, in the farther assertion,
that these points and principles furnish the only logical expla
nation of the existence of a Church College. If these prin
ciples be admitted, then we must found and endow institutions
like this ; we must — it is a solemn duty alike to man and to
God. While, on the other hand, if these principles be denied,
or any one of them, then does the mere existence of a College
such as this involve an inconsistency and an absurdity. For
consider, beloved brethren, and you, especially, matriculated
students within yonder walls, why came you to them ? You
did not come to learn theology. It is not a divinity school.
You came to learn the arts, and sciences, philosophy, lan
guages, and letters. But yet you came to study them here,
knowing that this institution has an essential element of reli
gion as its basis. Why should this be? Why should it have
come into the minds of men to found such an institution as
this ? Why should it have seemed good to that Corporation
far away, over which, in the order of God's Providence, I am
the head, to have made a grant of money for the carrying out
of this design ? Why should it have been determined by one
servant of God now in his quiet grave to endow this institu
tion in a spirit of munificence which has attracted the atten
tion and admiration of the times in whicli we live ? There
is an explanation of all this, and there is but one. The pro
found conviction that if man is to see light at all, he shall see
it in the light of God. The settled assurance that the intel
lect needs to its well-being the divine illumination of the
Holy Ghost. We hold, of any and of all the operations of
the human mind the same that we hold of all human efforts,
that, except they be sanctified and hallowed, they shall fail.
You may study the arts and sciences, languages and letters,
as long as you will ; you may become deeply versed in them,
yet, unless your acquirements that way be prevaded and per
meated by the light that cometh from above, all this shall be
to you but emptiness and vanity. Like Moses, you may be
come learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, yea, mighty

CONSECRATION SERMON. 23
in words and in deeds. But you shall be no more than a
pagan if you stop with that. You must go up into the
Mount, and enter into the heavenly sanctuary, and take up
thither what you have received, before the glory shall gather
into your countenance, and before you can dare to speak and
think in the spirit of truth, and as a man of God. The doc
trine and devotion of the apostolic days are necessary to civili
zation and advancement. Without them the idea of progress
is a delusion. The Church preserves them from age to age.
Therefore is she here, founded in the midst of this continent.
And therefore is the Chapel here in the midst of these clus
tered halls of learning. The logical solution of what you see
is this: that knowledge without religion is ignorance, and
that the key of knowledge is in the hands of her to whose first
Apostles were given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.
There are those among us who, in their poverty of thought,
regard the Church of Christ as a mere aggregate of believers,
as an accidental conglomeration of units, constituted merely
by that cohesion. There are others who think of her as an
institution of a quasi divine nature, but not as one by which
men are to be moulded, but as though she had a mystic
character, yet without any practical relation to the race. To
such men the work done here must involve a fallacy. To
such men, if they are profane as well as ignorant, it might
become a jest or a reproach. They cannot comprehend why
we act as we do. They do not understand this linking to
gether of secular learning and of dogmatic religion. But we
have our work before us, and that work must go on, whether
a man will hear, or whether he will forbear. We must work
in faith, in living faith, that onr foot standeth right. In faith
in the Church as the revealer of Christ, as the illuminator of
the world, as having the glory of God, and her light like
unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as
crystal; as the conservative power in the state, though the
state acknowledge her not; as the kingdom of God, though
sore, marred, and defaced; as strong, albeit, to the carnal

24 CONSECRATION SERMON.
eye in ruins ; so strong, even in her present weakness, that
we trust her still, and triumph in the thought of all that she
shall hereafter be, when it shall please the Lord to build up
.Zion, and when His glory shall appear.
Teach, brethren, in her ways, after the analogy of the
faith. Study, young men, as she enlightens you. Test by
her creeds each floating doctrine of the day. Apply them, as
a touchstone, to all the heresies of this age. Live in the
Church, and, in her, near to Christ. Exemplify in your
course the power of that Word wherein ye have been in
structed. So shall ye be aiding your generation, and helping
to save this nation, if it can be saved. Let us spread through
all our borders the name and Word of Christ, and this shall
be of a truth good work for them that come after, and
the people which shall be born shall praise the Lord.